Former Tullamore resident pens book and musical
Former Tullamore resident Fiona O’Malley is riding high this month, with her first book now available on Amazon and her musical 'The Daily Fail’ one of the highlights of an arts festival in London.
Speaking to the Offaly Independent Fiona said that while she’s now based in London she remains in close contact with her friends in Tullamore and would look forward to bringing a production to Tullamore in the future.
Fiona lived in Tullamore with her brother Cormac and her mother Grace from the age of six to 21. As a student at the Sacred Heart School the now 24 year old says she was “a below average student” who “worked really hard for mediocre results”.
Shining in creative subjects, however, Fiona says her talent was encouraged by those she learned from, particularly English teacher Pauline McKenna and fiddle teacher Attracta Brady.
After studying languages in Galway Fiona then moved to the UK to complete a Masters in Journalism at Kingston University. She has worked for Vogue, The Sunday Times, The Irish Times and The Observer, but right now she’s concentrating on her own writing and making a go of The Untold Theatre Company, which she co-founded with Adam Wollerton.
'The Daily Fail’ is a musical Fiona wrote as a response to the Leveson Inquiry. It centres around two girls - London and Dim - who are desperate to be famous at any cost but have no talent.
They find themselves in hell when fairy godmother Rupert Murdoch grants them their wish to be famous. “It sounds quite dark,” Fiona says. “It does have a dark side, but it is primarily a comedy.”
'The Daily Fail’ is being staged as part of this year’s International Youth Arts Festival in Kingston-upon-Thames in London.
Though she wrote the musical alone, Fiona’s keen to stress the team effort behind it, particularly director Adam Wollerton, composer Joseph Alexander and choreographer Rachel Kelly.
The comedy musical will be staged at 4pm on July 26 and 28 and at 6.30pm on July 27 in the Arthur Cotterell Theatre at Kingston College, and Fiona has hopes to take it to the West End later this year.
“A part of me is crippled with nerves but most of me is really excited,” Fiona said ahead of the show’s premiere. “I’m really confident in my product, my team and my cast.”
Fiona has plans to produce a Halloween musical that sees the Grim Reaper falling in love with Cupid, as well to write more books.
Her first book - 'What Would Kate Do: the diary of a walking disaster!’ is a story about a girl who idolises the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, and tries to follow her footsteps, but fails miserably.
Self-published through Byer’s Ink Company, it’s now available at Amazon. If it’s a success Fiona says she plans to write two more books in the same series.
More information on the International Youth Arts Festival is available atwww.iyafestival.co.uk, while more information on The Untold Theatre Company is available at www.theuntoldtheatrecompany.com.